Public opinion on Kavanaugh little changed after sexual assault allegation

Public opinion on Brett Kavanaugh has not changed significantly in the wake of a sexual assault allegation against the Supreme Court nominee.

Three HuffPost/YouGov polls found that Kavanaugh’s approval rating hovered between 31 percent and 34 percent both before and after the accusation was made public on Sunday.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that his approval rating was little changed, similar to a Morning Consult/Politico poll published Thursday.

{mosads}What little movement there was only enforced partisan divides.

Sixty-two percent of Democrats said they opposed Kavanaugh’s confirmation before the story broke, compared with 63 percent afterward, according to HuffPost/YouGov surveys conducted from Sept. 7-9 and Sept. 17-18.

Likewise, 67 percent of Republicans said he should be confirmed before the allegation was made public, with 72 percent supporting confirmation after Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused him of sexual assault from when they were high school students at a party in the early 1980s.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they hadn’t heard about the allegation.

Twenty-six percent of respondents said her allegation was credible, while 28 percent disagreed.

Broken down on party lines, 53 percent of Democrats said they found her accusation credible, with 60 percent of Republicans saying it wasn’t.

Many were undecided: 29 percent of Democrats, 35 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans said they needed more information.

The HuffPost/You Gov polls each surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults, with margins of error between 3.6 percentage points and 3.9 points.